Most of us egg lovers like our morning eggs in very definite ways. Some might resort to frying in oil or butter, poaching in boiling water with a smidgen of vinegar, or even microwaving flat on a saucer with some oil. Still others prefer an unstructured scramble or even an omelette with preferred fillings.

For the most part, the family prefers their eggs boiled in their calcium carbonate shells. But, that’s where the similarity ends. Everyone seems to have their preferred way to boil their eggs. I prefer to place a cold egg in a small pan of room temperature water. I turn on the heat and set the timer for 10 minutes to achieve the creamy not quite solid yellow-orange yolk with the whites firm but just so. My husband prefers to place room temperature eggs in boiling water and cooked for seven minutes for the just barely runny yolks and soft whites. My sister-in-law, Merle, prefers her morning egg at 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Our daughter prefers 6 minutes and 30 seconds for what she considers a “jammy yolk.” We all have our morning rituals complete with the ice water bath waiting to receive the hot ovoid at the end. Some have even timed exactly how long the cooked egg needs to sit in ice water. A minute for those who like some steam floating up from the yolk or up to 5 minutes for those who like it cool with every bite. Then, there is the issue of adding a pinch of salt. Or not.

One thing for sure, no one likes hard dry boiled eggs, with green or gray yolks. and rubbery whites. These would be considered mistreated, abused, near-nuclear eggs.

In most countries, people store their eggs on the kitchen counter. But in the United States, eggs have to be refrigerated. This is because the US FDA requires all eggs in the United States to be washed thoroughly. This reduces surface contaminants but it also removes the outer layer called bloom, which makes the egg shell impermeable. Without this layer, the egg shell is porous and it can allow air and any moisture pass through, as well as various microorganisms. Egg color preferences are beginning to change too. It used to be that everyone wanted white shells in the standard 50 gram size. Now, there are the brown, speckled, large, extra large, almost spherical, to name a few.

The internet abounds in how-to discussions as well as videos on how to properly cook an egg. Everyone swears by their methodology. Some people have even become egg snobs!

All these have come to our consciousness again when our son-in-law used the “Jammy Snack” theme (our daughter’s Instagram name is @jammysnak) for his surprise celebration for her 30th in Maine this past weekend. Everyone did their part to be a jammysnak!

WyLa celebrating a milestone birthday with friends, September 6-8, 2019, in all their “yolky” splendor.

Yes – thank goodness they keep
Laying them!
And for years we had those overdone hard boiled ones -/ and the first time I ever heard of yummy soft boiled was in 2001 – we had a young lady named Anna was visiting and liked those eggs like that (did not know there many different ways to make them still soft as you noted here)

I have an egg timer that I put in the water with the egg, shaped just like an egg. It has a repertoire of 3 songs, each denoting different stages of the egg starting from soft to hard. Take me Out to the Ballgame means my eggs are done.